Thursday, December 28, 2017

2018 – The year of the Volunteer Activist

2017 – What a year. The year of war, terror, fear, fear
mongering, Trump, North Korea, anger and volunteering. I added volunteering
because you just got to take something good from the year right? But wait up,
how many people volunteered for the Trump campaign? Is this volunteering for
good? There is a blog and a debate for the future. Even so, the words “low
level volunteer” still echo in my mind.

I’ve been hanging around on this planet for almost 48 years
now. I don’t think I’ve seen so much anger and divisiveness in my life. Everyone
seems to be fighting. Black white. Rich poor. Arab Jew. Woman man. Religious
atheist. Social media perpetuated this anger. You can’t read a news story on
Facebook without reading the brawling in the comments section. Keyboard
warriors have masses of courage.

You don’t see much compassion, love, forgiveness and
tolerance on social media. You certainly don’t see much of this coming from our
Governments. It’s enough to despair but I sense something is not quite right
here.

Who benefits from us all fighting with each other? While we
are all fighting are we simply distracted by what is really going on? Imagine
if we paused the arguments put down our phones and devices and just had a look
around us for a day. Imagine if we just
had a conversation about the growing divide between rich and poor and the
disappearance of the middle class. Imagine if we saw refugees with our hearts
instead of our minds and ignored the fear mongering driven by a government agenda
supported by the press.

Who benefits from us all fighting with each other? While we
are all fighting do we not notice that there is little difference between
political parties? Kids will starve to death by the time we usually reach lunch
time but we have our reality shows and dinner delivered on our apps to look
forward to in the evening.

Who benefits from us all fighting with each other? Because
above the noise of our arguments no one hears the cash registers ringing at the
billions many of our governments spend on defence. And we won’t worry about that
as long as we get a great New Year’s Eve fireworks display in major cities that
costs millions upon millions. But that’s ok because the homeless get a free
show too right?

Who benefits from us all fighting with each other? Because
we get more time to go to the beaches due to the beautiful hot weather and
those scientists are full of fake news.

Who benefits from us all fighting with each other? The answer
is those who benefit from us all being distracted. And who are they? The status
quo brigade. The elite. The powerful. The people who own you. Or like to think
they do. Their biggest fear is the old adage “the people united will never be
defeated”

Because united we find our humanity. United we see that we
all breathe the same air and bleed the same colour. United there are no
borders. United we seek equality and justice for all. United we know we produce
enough resources on this earth to serve all. United we know there is cheaper
cleaner energy.

And there is hope. In 2017 I’ve watched brave people around
the globe take action for good. People volunteer to make a difference but are
being choosier about where they volunteer. Activism is growing. I was once at a
national conference where someone argued that activism and volunteerism were inherently
different. I disagree. I believe the world will change for the good because of
volunteer activists!

This year for the first time since the Iraq war I protested.
Alerted by social media to the case of people who were being treated inhumanly,
without compassion and with cruelty I decided to be on the right side of history
and picked up my placard and sang my protest song. Because no more. Not in my
name.

Here’s to the volunteer activist in 2018. But first, try and
see all the distractions for what they really are.

Got a story to share: Contact DJ

This is my personal blog on matters pertaining to Volunteer Management,Volunteerism and sometimes life in general. It consists of my own opinions and does not represent the opinions of any other person, business or organization.

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About Me

Irish born, DJ Cronin commenced volunteering for organisations at the age of 15 and has been active in the volunteering sector for most of his life. DJ believes that volunteerism is a powerful movement for betterment and change in our society, and he is a passionate advocate for the sector of volunteer management as well as effective volunteer engagement and development.